Change Your Brain Every Day - Dr Amen Q&A Session 1

Episode Date: December 10, 2016

Welcome to the first Q&A session with Dr Amen. Every Saturday, you will be hearing one of Dr Amen's Q&A sessions, Facebook Live broadcasts, webinars as well as event recordings. 

Okay, first question. Hi, Dr. Raymond. My name is John, and I want to say, first of all, thank you very much for the program. The information is super, and your passion is obvious. I do have a question. Speaking as a person who never met a donut he didn't like, I have an addiction to square round cheese crackers. And there was so much information that came, my perception is it can be a long haul. So what recommendations do you have as far as absorbing the material

and words of encouragement you have for those of us that would be traveling on this? You know, John, thank you so much for asking. I mean, I've actually never met a donut I didn't like either. And I love those cheese crackers. The problem is they don't love me and I can lose control with them. And that's not what I want. It's why I tried to make these 10 steps. It's like, this is not hard. But the problem with most people, I think, is they never think about the brain. So no one is ever thinking about the level of omega-3 fatty acids in your blood. They're telling you to eat less when you feel hungry all the time. No one's measuring your vitamin D level,

which is just absolutely essential to sort of helping turn down that appetite monster in your head. If you do the things that I told you, and the first thing is know your BMI, and that will horrify you. And that is a good thing. Some anxiety is good. A lot of people go, oh, you know, let's just chill out and everybody be happy and don't be anxious. And it's like, no, you need to be anxious. I mean, if your goal is not to be suicidal, if it's to live a long time because you have work and you have people you care about, it's like, oh my goodness, I need to get serious about this. So if you do the program step by step, what I've seen is it works. It works for our NFL players. It works for me. It works for people I'm

close to. I know this will help you. But one really critical point is you do not need to think about this as I'm going to do it for 12 months. You need to think, I'm doing this for the rest of my life. And with that, you'll see the pounds come off. You'll see that you used to get into pants. If you looked at mine, in doing the wardrobe for the show, I was at Fashion Island, and I'm in the men's store there. And I put on a size 30 jeans. I've not worn a size 30 jeans since I was 18 years old.

And the guy there, Mark was his name, he said, you're going to have to go to the boys department. And now I told him when he handed me the 30, I said, you know, I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for this. And that's a very important point because a lot of people, when they lose weight, they're actually not emotionally ready for what's going to happen. It's especially true for women because now all of a sudden they're getting attention that makes them nervous or uncomfortable.

So there's a whole host of psychological issues that you have to deal with. But you know, I'd much rather deal with the size 30 genes than deal with high cholesterol or heart disease. Or, you know, in my line of work, having a smaller brain just doesn't work for me. Thank you for your question. Dr. Thank you for your question. Thank you. What is your question? Hi, Dr. Amen. My name is Pat, and I want to thank you for motivating me today. And I'd like to ask you a question regarding neurobics. Neurobics is the strengthening activity for your brain, and they taught that primarily for seniors. And I was wondering, you talked about meditation

and relaxation and how good that is also for the brain. Would you say a word on neurobics? That's a great question. As we use our brain, our brain actually becomes stronger. And with a stronger brain, you have more control over your cravings. People watch the most TV. So that would be the opposite of working out your brain, right? Because television is a bitty, unless, of course, you're watching public television. I mean, it's public television that gives you Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and all these great specials,

and it engages your mind. But most television is thoughtless. And if you're not working out your brain, as we saw in the show, your brain becomes less and less and less active. I always tell people, if you want to lose 10 pounds, learn something new. Why? Because as you increase the activity in your brain, what a lot of people don't know is your brain uses 20 to 30% of the calories that you consume. There is no other organ in your body that is as active or busy as your brain. So as you keep it healthy, you actually burn more calories.

And it engages. And if you engage your brain in different ways, which is really critical, just like working out, you shouldn't do the same muscle all the time. People who only do crossword puzzles, just like their right bicep is strong and everything else is weak. So you need to do language things like crossword puzzles. Brand new study saying that juggling actually helps the part of the brain that dies early in Alzheimer's disease, your parietal lobes.

Dancing is a great exercise if you learn new dance steps because it's two music. It works out your cerebellum and your memory centers. Meditation. We did this wonderful study now just replicated at the University of Pennsylvania that doing a very simple 12-minute meditation boosts your memory. So memory, frontal lobes, you want to learn something new every single day of your life because with that you are strengthening your brain. And does that also occur at different stages in different amounts? For example, at the elderly, can they improve their brains at a higher percent rate than perhaps a younger person?

Or is it exactly the same? It doesn't matter what age you are. When you're young, of course you should be learning. And we have a lot of things in place to help kids learn. The problem is after people get out of school, they don't really think of putting new learning as a regular part of their routine. The reason it's really great for seniors is you can just see the curve of their brains go down and down and down. But what's fascinating to me, we just scanned not too long ago, a friend of mine, her name is Doris Rapp. Doris is a very famous pediatric allergist,

and she's taught me a lot about food allergies. She's like in her 80s and young and works out and plays tennis and is always learning new things. I had a recently lecture to my doctors, and when I looked at her 80-something brain, it was stunningly beautiful. And it's a direct reflection of how she has taken care of it all these years. My mom's another great example. My mom at 78 has one of the most beautiful brains on the planet. She plays golf at a very high level. She's actively involved in all of her kids' lives. She's learning new things all the time. And besides the pizza, which she does on holidays, she generally eats really well. If she goes five pounds over what she likes, she loses it. Why? Because it's important to her. How you live your life moment by moment

is making your brain better or it's making your brain worse. Engaging it in new learning is absolutely critical. Thank you, Dr. Amen. Good afternoon. My name is Linda, and I have high blood sugar issues with type 2 diabetes and inflammation issues with rheumatoid arthritis, and the two seem to battle each other. At least, I think they do. Maybe you could clarify that, and how can eating better help one or the other or both? The two issues aren't battling each other. So I just go, that's an ant. I need to get rid of that thought. What I need to do is I need to decrease inflammation and get my blood sugar under control because both of them are a nightmare for your health and your longevity. So we talked about ways to decrease your blood sugar, which means you have to eat frequently. I mean, if you saw my diet,

I actually eat six times a day. I'm always eating something, but I'm really thoughtful about what I'm eating. Plus fish oil, boosting the omega-3 fatty acids in your body does a really good job at decreasing inflammation. We have a new test that we're doing in our office where we actually measure the fatty acid level in your blood. And I have to tell you, I have been routinely horrified by the level of omega-3 fatty acids in my patients' brains and in many of my employee brains. My niece, who I love, I mean, you know, she's like in the top 10 of people I love in the whole world. She's pregnant. We do her fatty acid level, and it's horrible. And, you know, I like chewed her out and made sure fish oil for you because it helps the baby's brain.

And otherwise, it's setting her up for problems. So we talked about calorie restriction, decreases inflammation, also helps your diabetes. The supplement alpha-lipoic acid has A-level scientific evidence that it helps to balance blood sugar. And A-level scientific evidence means really good, solid evidence that it can help. So exercise, fish oil, eating multiple times a day, knowing your important numbers. So say you have a low vitamin D level. Well, that promotes diabetes. That promotes inflammation. It's like, well, how easy is that? Right? And it's not the same thing as taking a multiple vitamin, right? Because in a multiple vitamin, there's 400

international units of vitamin D. What I required to get my level to normal was 6,000 international units a day. And so some people go, but if you take too much, is that a problem? That's why you got to get your level checked. You know, my whole work on brain imaging is based on this very simple concept. How the heck would I ever know about what's going on in your brain if I didn't look? How would I ever know about your vitamin D level or your omega-3 fatty acid level if I didn't look? I mean, using some of the scans and the lab tests, they're critical for us to really understand what's going on with you so that we can better target treatment and help so you don't have to live with rheumatoid arthritis and you don't have to live with diabetes? Or if you do, because if

you have diabetes, it's the time to be dead serious about getting it under control. I lived with a father-in-law for 20 years who just never got it seriously, just didn't get it and kept sneaking the donuts and sneaking the pastries. And then he lost one leg and then he lost another leg and then he lost his sight and then he got dementia. And I'm just like, John, come on. A little anxiety is good. Thank you for your question. You've boosted that. My name is Sandy. Can a person be sensitive to certain vitamins or supplements? My blood test results do show a lot of vitamin D and B, and I take what the doctor prescribed. And every time I get dizzy and I have the nausea. And when I stop, it goes away. You know, that's a very good question. Can people be sensitive to supplements? And the answer is absolutely yes. But it means that you then try different brands because it could be not the supplement itself, because

obviously if your vitamin D level is low, you need more vitamin D. Now, there are other ways to get it, but I would say the problem isn't not with vitamin D. It's with whatever is in the other mixture to make the tablet or capsule into what it is. How do you find that balance between too much or too little? Blood tests. So the question is, how do you find the balance between too much or too little? And one of the first things that you can do to boost your vitamin D level naturally is take a walk for 15 minutes in the sun every day without sunscreen. I mean, how simple is that? That gives you 10,000 units, right? Wear a skin as you can, right? Just 15 minutes, 10,000 units for 15 minutes. So that's clearly one way to do it. The other very interesting point that comes to mind when you ask this question is when supplements help to balance what's going on in your body, what they often do is they're

balancing it at the same time you're taking medicine. And now the medicine is too strong. So for example, if you had diabetes and now you start taking alpha lipoic acid and you go, well, I'm dizzy when I take it. Well, it's because it's now helped stabilize your blood sugar. And on top of that, the insulin, which is usually doing its thing, now it's doing too much of a thing. And it can be a real problem. So when you go on supplements, it's very important to work with a medical professional who really understands how to blend nutritional supplements with medication. Makes sense. Thank you. how to blend nutritional supplements with medication.

Makes sense, thank you.